1000 years of Career Advice – Paul Murphy

The premise of this book is an excellent one. Taking 100 graduates, the author interviews them ten years after making their career choices.

There are 100 graduates featured here, across a broad range of 16 specialities. While the bulk of the roles are either based in Ireland or the UK, there is an international flavour, including far-flung destinations such as Oman, Switzerland, and Scotland :D.

The disciplines range from accounting, through the ubiquitous IT roles, from HR, sales, engineering and law, amongst others.

Within each diverse group, the author aims to get as wide a span as possible, so that the reader can take the career path from high-level to an actual day-to-day scenario.

The aim of the book is simple – to give enough of an overview that will somewhat demystify a sector, and hopefully cause the interested reader to research that role a bit further. It is first and foremost a reference guide, to give the reader a feeling for what a role may be like, according to people living that role.

What I Liked:

The interview format. Open-ended questions allows the interviewee to expand on his/her role, and the reader gets honest insights.

The condensing of themes at the end of the book. The author creates a meta-theme e.g. University, then cross-references important sub-themes in his interviews to that meta-theme (e.g. which interviewees in which roles highlighted the importance of work placements while at university).

No in-depth knowledge or experience is needed to get to grips with this book – it is ideal for those coming up to the Leaving Cert (or A Levels), and also serves as an excellent primer for the younger readers who are beginning to realise there’s a wider working world out there!!

What I Didn’t Like:

Not much.

Overall:

A definite must-have for every career guidance teacher in Ireland & the UK, and parent who may not have all the answers to all the questions! Well-written, accessible, and to the point – it gets the starter questions out of the way in a clear style, allowing the young readers to get more in-depth and informed.

Acknowledgements:

Thanks to the author who sent me a free copy of his book, in return for an honest review.